Before I knew it, Shin Hae-ryang had stopped and opened a place that looked like a fire hydrant attached to the wall. It wasn't a fire hydrant as the label outside suggested. It was just dark, and it smelled of mold and seawater. Pointing to the dark, black hole-like space, Shin Hae-ryang said,
"You can go in one by one."
It seemed he was talking to Nana and Yujin, but neither of them moved. I stared into the darkness and said, it looked like a place where monsters could live. The darkness seemed to absorb all the light around me, just like a black hole. I pointed into the unseen darkness and asked,
"What is this place?"
"It's a staircase."
"What... a staircase? There's a staircase in an underwater base?"
Nana and Yujin, as well as Baek Ae-young and Seo Ji-hyuk, looked bewildered.
"It was built during the early stages of the underwater base, before the central elevator was constructed. It was used while building the Third Underwater Base from the First Underwater Base. It's temporary, inconvenient, and hard to maintain, and accidents were frequent, so it's no longer used."
Moreover, there was no light. Looking into the pitch-black interior of the fire hydrant, I licked my lips and swallowed hard. Whoosh. A strange sound came from inside, and the smell was peculiar. It was a place that could only appear in a horror movie. No sane person would want to go in there.
"What kind of accidents happened?"
"Slips and falls, as far as I know. You'll see when you look at the stairs, but there are no railings, and the steps aren't standard-sized, so the height is inconsistent. Plus, since it hasn't been used since the elevator was completed, it's very dusty and slippery."
I lost my words. So this is what Shin Hae-ryang meant by 'a difficult way to go, but a way to move to the Second Underwater Base without encountering people.' I hadn't walked up more than ten floors in the past five years, let alone 180 floors. I'd go insane.
Even Yujin, the researcher, whose face was already pale, turned even paler. Damn. I barely managed to hold back the urge to curse along with Seo Ji-hyuk. 4300 steps? I remember that when climbing Mount Ose, the stairs had 1600 steps.
"Uh... 4300 steps. It will definitely be a good workout... How long will it take to get to the top?"
Shin Hae-ryang looked at me, Yujin, and finally Seo Ji-hyuk, hesitating before he spoke.
"If you climb quickly without stopping, you should reach the Second Underwater Base in about 60 minutes. But with this group, it will probably take at least an hour and a half."
Oh... I started to feel relieved, thinking Shin Hae-ryang was more positive than I was. I had thought we wouldn't be able to make it even if we climbed all day. Even Baek Ae-young, who had never disagreed with Shin Hae-ryang's decisions, looked troubled.
"Team leader... I've participated in vertical marathons where you have to run up 7 seconds per floor to be in the top tier, running three steps per second. If my memory serves me right, the winning record was within 25 minutes. Even those who practiced climbing stairs to death would probably take about 30 minutes for this height. I... I like climbing stairs. I love it. But the others, except for me and the team leader, will collapse as soon as we reach the Second Underwater Base and won't be able to move a finger."
Shin Hae-ryang responded in a low voice.
"...That's not a big problem. I hope many issues arise during our 90-minute climb, or that everyone in the Second or Third Underwater Base is dead from shooting each other."
Seo Ji-hyuk looked at his legs, seemingly preferring the elevator, which could take them up in one go, over the endless stairs.
"Whatever. Does a person die twice? Let's take the elevator. Cultists? Let's fight them! I'll take out at least three of them!"
Ignoring Seo Ji-hyuk's words, Yujin, who had been muttering '4300' like a mantra, sighed several times before speaking.
"Let's climb while taking breaks. The fewer armed people we encounter, the better."
I looked at the barely visible stairs in the darkness and the warm, lit interior of the underwater base, then sighed. My answer was almost predetermined.
"I'd rather crawl up the darkness of the stairs than meet those guys again."
Baek Ae-young said nothing. I, Yujin, and Seo Ji-hyuk looked at her, especially Seo Ji-hyuk, who seemed to be pleading for support. Baek Ae-young looked at Seo Ji-hyuk calmly and said,
"I agree with Team Leader Shin Hae-ryang."
Now, I, Baek Ae-young, Seo Ji-hyuk, and Yujin all looked at Shin Hae-ryang. Seo Ji-hyuk's expression was particularly amusing. He clung to Shin Hae-ryang, who remained expressionless, trying to win the majority.
The pseudo-religious followers might be only two or a small group of five. If the Second Underwater Base is empty when we get there, wouldn't it be unfair to have climbed all those stairs? They're definitely exaggerating their numbers. What about hiding above or below the elevator and going up? (The elevator is transparent, right?) Maybe the Japanese or Chinese have already fought the cultists and finished them off. They might have killed each other off. The Fourth Underwater Base is in chaos; how do we know the Third or Second Underwater Base, connected by the central elevator, won't malfunction or collapse? We don't know. And if you think we're baggage, I'll teach you how to shoot a gun right now. Maybe these two (Seo Ji-hyuk pointed at me and Yujin) have incredible talent. Maybe one of them is a natural killer, like a dentist who drills people's teeth. That's not something a normal person can do. Looking at people's mouths all day, how can they be sane? (Hahaha! I burst out laughing at this part.) Yujin might be a perfect match for a gun. Look at Baek Ae-young. The shorter and more timid a woman with long hair seems, the more inherent violence she has. Yujin definitely has incredible courage and the decisiveness to pull the trigger. Being a graduate student in marine biology in such deep waters, she must have a level of frustration and stress that rivals a mass shooter. (What? Yujin glared at him in disbelief.) Why should we walk 90 minutes in the dark for a distance that takes only 3 minutes in the light? Look at my legs!
Shin Hae-ryang listened to Seo Ji-hyuk's words in silence before asking,
"Are you telling me to engage in a gunfight with an unknown number of cult members in the elevator, while protecting two civilians who have never held a gun and one injured person, with only three guns? I would have chosen the stairs even if there were 40,000 steps."
Baek Ae-young chuckled and was the first to throw herself into the darkness inside the fire hydrant.
Seo Ji-hyuk sighed. Yujin asked Baek Ae-young, who was barely visible in the dark,
"How is it inside?"
"It's comfortable and cozy. I can hear low rock music, smell roses, and there are feathers on the floor, and petals falling from above."
"......I'll go in too."
Yujin carefully entered the fire hydrant. Then I bent down and went in. None of what Baek Ae-young said was true. First, there was a buzzing sound, and the smell of water, mold, dust, and something rotting. The floor was littered with trash, and unknown droplets fell from above. Moreover, the stairs were slippery, and there were no handrails except for the wall, and the step heights were inconsistent.
I helped Seo Ji-hyuk get in from the inside, and Shin Hae-ryang helped from the outside. Seo Ji-hyuk had to lie flat to barely fit inside. Shin Hae-ryang was the last to enter.
Inside, Shin Hae-ryang wiped the floor with a rag-like cloth, removed his footprints, and then closed the fire hydrant door from the inside. Once the door was completely closed, no light came in from outside.
Baek Ae-young was illuminating the floor with the light from her pad. Seo Ji-hyuk used the pad's light to shine on the walls, saw something moving, and cursed for a while before only shining the light on the floor. I reached into the bag, which had become a cat carrier, and felt something incredibly soft.
Taking the cat out and searching the floor beneath it, I found a flashlight. I started turning the flashlight. One minute of turning for 15 minutes of use. Thanks to the self-generating flashlights being so well-made these days, it soon shone brightly. This bag and flashlight were a gift from my younger brother when I started my job. He gave it to me so I wouldn't get lost in life, but I never thought I'd use it like this. What is my brother doing now?
"Wow!"
"Amazing."
Seo Ji-hyuk and Yujin exclaimed in amazement. The flashlight was definitely better than other electronic devices. I thought I'd never use it. I handed the flashlight to Baek Ae-young, who was standing at the front. She quickly put her pad in her backpack and took the flashlight.
"......I was getting frustrated, but this is good."
Baek Ae-young smiled, looking relieved. She shone the flashlight in front of her and then on Seo Ji-hyuk's leg. Shin Hae-ryang and I adjusted the splint and supported Seo Ji-hyuk.